A mostly cordial debate on May 13 that centered on affordable housing and recent woes at the East Hampton Town Building Department likely gave both East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and her Democratic primary challenger, East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen, an opportunity to claim victory.
The supervisor was able to defend her record, tout her ability to translate her relationship with Gov. Kathy Hochul to both an endorsement and dollars for town projects, and show her mastery of process and town code.
For his part, Mr. Larsen consistently questioned and criticized the supervisor, often putting her on the defensive.
Even the line of questions asked by Joe Shaw, the moderator and consulting editor for the Express News Group, which hosted the sold-out debate at LTV studios in Wainscott, seemed influenced by the Larsen campaign’s talking points.
Mr. Shaw asked questions about dysfunction in the Building Department (“How did things get so bad there?”), Mr. Larsen’s vision for the senior citizen center, general staffing troubles at Town Hall, and what Mr. Larsen thought were his opponent’s biggest failings.
Meanwhile, Mr. Larsen wasn’t asked to defend his own record as mayor, which includes a wastewater treatment plant that never came to fruition and fallout from a first-term spat with the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association.
When Mr. Shaw acknowledged that there are always questions left unasked and gave Ms. Burke-Gonzalez an opportunity to raise any important issues he might have missed, she demurred and said, “I think you covered everything that I was expecting you to cover.”
Mr. Larsen instead used the opening to score some points and again questioned the supervisor’s leadership and ability to bring a project to completion.
He asked about a $4.2 million land purchase on West Lake Drive in Montauk. (The 19 acres purchased by the town in 2022, was actually on East Lake Drive.) Ms. Burke-Gonzalez was on the board when the buy was approved and a plan hatched to swap it with county land near the Montauk landfill, where the town hoped to build a $75 million wastewater treatment plant on 14 acres in Hither Woods.
Amid community opposition, the plant was never built.
“What is the plan for that property at this point?” Mr. Larsen asked Ms. Burke-Gonzalez.
She didn’t answer directly, instead underscoring the town’s commitment to addressing wastewater issues in Montauk in general.
“I did not support the parkland alienation,” she said, but she acknowledged her vote for the East Lake Drive property. When Mr. Larsen pressed the supervisor about the plan for the property, she said, “The current plan right now is that it’s open space.”
Mr. Shaw jumped in. “Was it purchased as open space?”
“No, it was purchased with municipal funds,” said Ms. Burke-Gonzalez. “Under a previous administration.”
“Excuse me,” said the mayor, pausing. “Weren’t you part of that administration?”
“Oh, yeah. I absolutely was,” said the supervisor as the audience laughed. “I wasn’t lead on that project.”
“All right. I was just checking,” said Mr. Larsen.
The first question asked by Mr. Shaw of the supervisor, “What do you see as your biggest success?” seemed a softball.
She touched on road investments, the new roundabout at Stephen Hand’s Path and Long Lane, her relationship with Governor Hochul (she announced a new $7 million grant for Cantwell Court) and environmental projects.
Mr. Shaw asked for clarification. “Is there one thing in that list that you’re most proud of?”
“I get to make a difference in people’s lives every day,” she said.
The mayor perhaps was weakest when Mr. Shaw asked, “What are your ‘big D’ Democratic principles you stand for, and how do you represent them better than your opponent?”
Mr. Larsen cited “environmental protection” as his number-one principle but then went into a history of his party affiliation, taking the question in a different direction. When Mr. Shaw prompted him to get back to the principles, he returned to the environment, but more as an attack on the supervisor, using the clearing at the planned senior center site on Abraham’s Path as an example of something he would not have supported.
For her part, the supervisor, whose election signs feature the tag, “Lifelong Democrat,” spoke more concretely about money she has secured for upgrading septic grants and for stormwater projects. She transitioned to talk about compassion and the recently passed public safety and accountability law, a version of which the village had passed the week prior to the town.
She then highlighted the size difference between the two municipalities: The town is over 70 square miles and the village is five square miles. “We have a year-round population of 29,000, the village is 1,500 and their population is decreasing,” she said. “The issues in the town are much more complex than they are in the village.”
She was strongest speaking about affordable housing, or showing her knowledge about larger projects and recent code changes that she hoped would spur more construction of A.D.U.s, and new legislation that could add accessory staff housing.
However, when she took a shot at the mayor for not passing affordable housing legislation in the village, he was able to defend that, and then went on offense.
“Sag Harbor has passed legislation to allow A.D.U.s,” she said, referring to accessory dwelling units. “It doesn’t look like East Hampton Village is looking to do A.D.U.s, Jerry?”
He said the village allows for separate dwellings on lots that are over an acre and a half.
“We have done what we can do in the village, remember how small we are, Kathee,” he said. “East Hampton Village is not charged with building affordable homes. That’s the town. They have the C.H.F. [community housing fund] money. For people to be attacking the village for not creating affordable housing, it’s just silly.”
“There are homes on Therese’s Court,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said, explaining that they were in foreclosure. “I tasked our town staff to take a look and see if we could purchase them for multifamily residences. The gentleman wants a great deal of money, but other than that, there’s no code in East Hampton Village that would have allowed us to move forward with that project.”
“I’m actually the one who brought Therese’s Court to Katy Casey [executive director of the East Hampton Housing Authority],” Mr. Larsen said. “We’ve been meeting with the owner regularly and then she brought it back to your board.”
He said the plan is to buy half the development with C.H.F. money from the developer, which would enable him to complete building the other half. The six lots purchased with the town’s money could be used for town and village employee housing.
“I’m not familiar with the plan you’re talking about,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said.
The mayor said discussions have been ongoing for six months and that Ms. Casey was just waiting for an appraisal, which would allow them to negotiate with the builder to move the project forward.
“I’m sorry you weren’t brought into the loop,” he said.
However, when the mayor tried to attach the supervisor to a locally unpopular item in the state budget, a Governor Hochul proposal to remove environmental review from certain affordable housing developments, she was able to highlight her knowledge.
He said he disagreed with the state “rolling back environmental review” and asked if the town supervisor supported it.
She explained that the law has not gone forward but Mr. Larsen pressed. “It fast-tracks up to 100 units,” something that would surely scare locals.
“Not in this community,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said. “You have to be on sewers, and we don’t have sewers, so the legislation doesn’t apply to us.”
At East Hampton Village Board meetings, the mayor has, at times, flashed an angry streak at critics. At the debate, he was nearly goaded by Joe Gonzalez, the supervisor’s husband and a candidate himself for the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee, who apparently was laughing at the mayor, despite Mr. Shaw’s request for the audience to be respectful.
“I don’t know what you’re laughing about, Joe,” said Mr. Larsen before Mr. Shaw stepped in and said, “Let’s not interact with the audience.”
“It’s just distracting,” said the mayor, before recomposing himself.
Both candidates offered closing statements and then, perhaps too quickly, it was over. The two shook hands and departed. Maybe the biggest unanswered question was if the debate would matter in the election. At least at LTV Studios, partisans from both camps seemed pretty dug in.
The debate is available to watch on LTV’s YouTube channel. The primary election is June 23.
